Who’s REALLY Behind The “No Kings” Protest?

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "Who’s REALLY Behind The “No Kings” Protest?"

Release Date: June 17, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook

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Introduction

In this episode of the Ruthless Podcast, hosts Michael Duncan, Comfortably Smug, and John Ashbrook delve deep into the origins and motivations behind the recent “No Kings” protests. The discussion is rich with analysis of political strategies, funding sources, and the broader implications for the Democratic Party and the left-wing movement. Additionally, the hosts engage their audience with thoughtful commentary, interviews, and a touch of humor in their variety segments.

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Unmasking the "No Kings" Protest

Michael Duncan kicks off the episode by questioning the authenticity of the “No Kings” movement, suggesting it lacks grassroots support and is instead a well-funded orchestrated operation.

[04:04] Michael Duncan: "We have a great show for you. We had the No Kings protest over the weekend and you're gonna find out who is really behind that movement, which I think is very interesting."

John Ashbrook introduces the idea that prominent left-wing figures, like Randy Weingarten, the head of the teachers’ union, are more theatrical than genuine in their activism.

[05:20] John Ashbrook: "She's absolutely not done that. But, like, what is she doing here? Like this. This. This tells you so much."

The hosts explore the financial backing of the protests, revealing a staggering $2.1 billion machine behind the movement, involving numerous Democratic-aligned organizations.

[07:14] Michael Duncan: "The writer here, Azra Nomani. The title is the 2.1 billion machine behind Spontaneous Anti Trump Protests."

They emphasize that the protests are far from spontaneous, highlighting coordinated efforts through money and strategic planning.

[10:11] Comfortably Smug: "And you saw over the weekend clips of people who were in their cars saying, yeah, I was paid $200 to go to one of these rallies."

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Analyzing Protest Footage and Public Perception

The hosts play various clips to illustrate the absurdity and theatrics of the protests. One notable segment features protesters dressed as cats, attempting to mock military parades celebrating American troops.

[14:44] John Ashbrook: "You have people dressed up as cats walking down a sidewalk... It's terrible theater. They should be mocked."

Comfortably Smug criticizes the protesters for their lack of genuine purpose and the perception that they are undermining the celebration of American military achievements.

[16:11] John Ashbrook: "This was all the folks who saw it, saw it. It was such a treat... and Donald Trump and all this sort of. And the bands that were playing and everybody there was having a good time."

The discussion shifts to the mental health crisis evident among some protesters, exemplified by a 74-year-old woman exhibiting extreme paranoia and fear.

[20:43] Comfortably Smug: "I'm just so scared and upset... She's 74, and they wound her up to the point that she's just crying and paranoid."

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Impact on the Democratic Party and Left-Wing Movement

John Ashbrook contrasts the left’s insular base with the growing conservative movement, arguing that the left's command-and-control tactics have led to radicalization and isolation.

[21:08] John Ashbrook: "The left has just made their base more insular and insular and insular, and kept them in a silo of information where they're being told that... it's a horrible thing."

Michael Duncan emphasizes the lack of genuine grassroots support, likening the movement to a Don Quixote scenario where activists are fighting imaginary foes.

[19:10] Michael Duncan: "It's like Don Quixote. They have this idea, this nightmare of America they think is real, that they're fighting against."

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Audience Engagement: Question of the Day

The hosts pose a question to their listeners regarding the sustainability and future impact of the “No Kings” movement on the Democratic Party and upcoming midterm elections. They encourage listeners to submit their thoughts for discussion in future episodes.

[23:16] Michael Duncan: "Our question of the day... Is this going to be a sustainable movement for the left? Is this a thing that they're going to build on?"

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Interview Segment: Ray Starling on the "Big Beautiful Bill"

In an insightful interview, Ray Starling from the North Carolina Chamber discusses a critical provision in the ongoing reconciliation bill that threatens tobacco farmers in North Carolina and other tobacco-growing states.

Key Points Discussed:

• Duty Drawback Provision: A longstanding provision dating back to 1789, aimed at making American exports more competitive by offering tax rebates on products exported abroad.

  [56:52] Ray Starling: "The general premise is that if you import a product... you get a tax rebate... that helps us be more competitive in tobacco around the world."

• Economic Impact: The provision is crucial for maintaining the competitiveness of North Carolina’s tobacco industry, which contributes significantly to the state's economy.

  [58:53] Ray Starling: "The Tobacco Growers of Association have estimated... we would lose about a fifth of the crop, 20% of the crop."

• Cultural Significance: Beyond economics, tobacco farming holds cultural importance in North Carolina, contributing to community heritage and educational institutions.

  [60:29] Ray Starling: "There’s a lot of people that are connected to this industry... trying to get the word out to them is exactly what our Ag Future is all about."

Comfortably Smug underscores the parallel between tobacco in North Carolina and coal in West Virginia, highlighting the cultural pride associated with these industries.

[60:39] Comfortably Smug: "Tobacco in North Carolina is a lot like coal in West Virginia. There's a cultural significance to that product."

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Variety Segment: The Italian Crypto Scam Parody

Injecting humor into the episode, the hosts present a parody of an Italian crypto scam involving a convoluted kidnapping and false narratives. This segment serves as both entertainment and satire of complex political and financial schemes.

[47:11] Comfortably Smug: "This story has crypto, it has kidnapping, torture case... and it’s got a little bit of sexiness to it."

The parody highlights the exaggerated nature of scams and the often ridiculous lengths to which perpetrators go to deceive victims.

[52:08] John Ashbrook: "This is like Italian brain in action... Don Corleone."

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Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The hosts wrap up the episode by reiterating the significance of understanding the true backers of movements like “No Kings” and the broader implications for American politics. They emphasize the importance of informed listening and encourage audience participation in future discussions.

[67:05] John Ashbrook: "Absolute banger of an episode... Stay ruthless."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• [04:04] Michael Duncan: "We have a great show for you. We had the No Kings protest over the weekend and you're gonna find out who is really behind that movement."

• [16:11] John Ashbrook: "This was all the folks who saw it, saw it... and everybody else is like, well, let's celebrate these troops."

• [21:08] John Ashbrook: "The left has just made their base more insular... it's a horrible thing."

• [40:23] Comfortably Smug: "A quarter bill, a lot of money to this."

• [56:52] Ray Starling: "The general premise is that if you import a product... you get a tax rebate."

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Conclusion

This episode of the Ruthless Podcast offers a critical examination of the “No Kings” protests, uncovering the financial and organizational structures behind them. Through incisive analysis, engaging interviews, and a blend of humor, the hosts provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the current political landscape and its underlying forces. The discussion not only sheds light on the tactics of left-wing movements but also highlights the economic and cultural challenges facing industries like tobacco farming in states like North Carolina.

For those interested in political strategy, grassroots movements, and the interplay between funding and activism, this episode serves as an enlightening resource.

Transcript

[Michael Duncan]

We've got who's really behind the no Kings protest.

[Comfortably Smug]

I guess that these octogen. Who knows how old these middle aged people are in cat costumes that they're going to eat ice.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know. They still think they're fighting Vietnam.

[Comfortably Smug]

These are theater kids.

[Michael Duncan]

Theater kids.

[Comfortably Smug]

And it's bad theater. It is, it's terrible theater. They should be mocked.

[Michael Duncan]

I also saw people on Twitter talking about all of the unsolicited text messages they were getting from organizers of these protests.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Who are, you know, texting out these videos of being like, why you have to come to this no Kings protest.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I mean, this is a well funded, well orchestrated operation. It's anything but grassroots.

[Comfortably Smug]

America's beverage companies are investing in America.

[Michael Duncan]

We're American companies making American products with American workers in America's hometowns.

[Comfortably Smug]

We're local bottlers and manufacturers operating in.

[Michael Duncan]

All 50 states, employing more than 200Americans in good paying jobs delivering for the.

[Comfortably Smug]

Nation because we believe in the promise.

[Michael Duncan]

Of America and the people who make it great.

[Comfortably Smug]

Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Beverage Association. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[John Ashbrook]

Keep the fate, hold the line and own the lids.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's time for our main event.

[Michael Duncan]

Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program. I am Michael Duncan. Along with me, Comfortably Smug and John Ashbrook. No Josh Holmes here today, unfortunately, but we soldier on nonetheless. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be good.

[Comfortably Smug]

Very excited about a lot of good.

[John Ashbrook]

Stuff in this episode.

[Michael Duncan]

We have a great show for you. We had the no Kings protest over the weekend and you're gonna find out who is really behind that movement, which I think is very interesting. Very, very interesting. We have an update on the Israel, Iran conflict as it's going on. You know, maybe there's a little bit of, you know, fight infighting here in the, in the conservative movement over that whole thing. But we're going to suss it all out for you, listener and viewer. We also have some fantastic variety. We have an Italian crypto scam not.

[John Ashbrook]

Going to want to miss.

[Michael Duncan]

I've been, I've been wanting to get to this story for a while. We haven't found a good spot spot for it, but now we have one and it's great. I hope you're ready for an active board. We're going to need the board during that segment.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're going to have the board. I don't, I don't know the details of this story, but I cannot wait to find out.

[John Ashbrook]

That's going to make it even better.

[Comfortably Smug]

With everybody else who's listening.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And then we have Ray Starling from the North Carolina chamber who's coming in to talk about an important tax issue that we may see here from this reconciliation bill as it's reported out from the Senate. So interesting stuff. Before we get to all of that, I want to say a belated happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, yeah, all the kings.

[Michael Duncan]

All the kings. Yeah. It was the weekend of no kings, but there were kings everywhere on Sunday.

[Comfortably Smug]

Kings everywhere. Especially listening to this show. It's only kings listening to this show.

[Michael Duncan]

Did you get anything good for Father's Day?

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, I got a couple of shirts and I got a. Just. I was treated to a wonderful day thanks to my girls who look out for their old man. That's so nice.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I, I got some good stuff, especially from our, our five year old Joey. He got me a box of Pro V1s. He colored all of them, you know, which was a little tough where it's like, you know, do I want to play in a par three, a ball that says we love you, dad on it and risk, risk throwing that right in the water, you know, I mean, what are you supposed to do with that?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's so good, man. It is so good. I got a Cincinnati Reds golf shirt.

[Michael Duncan]

Nice.

[Comfortably Smug]

And a T shirt that says dad Tax on it. It's one of those joke shirts that you give your dads. And I always take the dad tax on anything that looks good that my kids order at dinner. And so great inside joke for our family, but just a terrific present. Wonderful Father's Day. My kids are the best.

[John Ashbrook]

That's awesome.

[Michael Duncan]

That's awesome, dude. All right, well, so let's get right into it here. We've got who's really behind the no Kings protest. For those of you somehow missed the news here over the week weekend, and we mentioned it numerous times here on the ruthless variety program. Randy Weingarten. And a lot of these, these left wing groups have been organizing these protests to, to coincide with the, you know, the birthday, the 250th birthday of the US Army, Donald Trump's birthday. This parade that was happening in Washington D.C. they were going to organize all of these protests across the country. It didn't go so well. Didn't go so well. Turns out these people are kind of lunatics and when they get together in spaces together, they lose their minds. I think we can only do this justice by putting clip one as a table setter. Here, Spaghetts, can we get that?

[Ray Starling]

You are the community to this president's chaos.

[John Ashbrook]

And together we build a future of opportunity and justice for all.

[Ray Starling]

Hope over fear, aspiration over anger. The promise of America for each and every American.

[John Ashbrook]

That is what we are fighting for today.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, so there is Randy.

[John Ashbrook]

She's again, the head of the teachers union who is, for some reason, at a no Kings protest. And, you know, theoretically, her job is supposed to be to improve children's education somehow.

[Comfortably Smug]

Theoretically.

[John Ashbrook]

And she's absolutely not done that. But, like, what is she doing here? Like this. This. This tells you so much.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. And you know what she's doing there. If you look at the contribution breakdown from the teachers union to political parties, it is always 99% to Democrats. And some. Several people who follow the show were tweeting this out over the weekend. If you look back through history, every single year, this they're giving only to Democrats as a partisan organization.

[Michael Duncan]

Ashbrook, I'm really glad you mentioned that, because that's a great segue. I mean, you got Randi Weingarten out there bouncing around like she's, you know, on Adderall or something.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can I make an observation about bouncing, by the way? She's doing that presumably to convey, like, emphasis how upset she is. How upset? She's so upset that she has to continue reading her script. She can't do that extemporaneously. Like, you would think that if someone is so upset, they would be able to say things like hope over fear off the top of their head as they're bouncing. And yet she continued to refer back to her notes, which to me says that she is conflicted between a script that she wants to read and the pretend.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, the theater.

[Comfortably Smug]

Emphatic theater. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. This weekend was theater Kids Gone Wild, I guess, would be a good summation of the entire thing. But to put a finer point on all of this, which I think is super important. Important, got this story here from Fox News. The writer here, Azra Nomani. The title is the 2.1 billion machine behind Spontaneous Anti Trump Protests.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, we know. There was nothing spontaneous about it. We reported first here on the Variety program about what you should expect that weekend during the protests. And everybody saw you had days earlier.

[John Ashbrook]

Ashok was like, days and days and days before we saw this. He was like, listen, I've already heard from sources that money's being put into organizing these things. And every. This is back when, during the LA riots, when they first started. Africa's like, listen, I'm being told by sources they're gonna try to push and fund this to happen in every major US City.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and it's the most revealing thing I think in the wake of George Floyd and everything that we saw five years ago is conservatives, you know, got a better sense of how centrally planned and organized all these protests on the left. And so you can't really, you know, put one past the goalie on any of this stuff anymore. There is no spontaneous uprising on the left. All of their politics is command and control. From the top here, from that, that article here is the breakdown of 198quote partners listed in the official publicity material for the financial and political machine behind no Kings. Three official entities of the Democratic National Committee.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Michael Duncan]

16 Democratic political action committees, including Friends of Bernie Sanders, Progressive Democrats of America and Vote Blue. 18 Democratic aligned 501C. 5 Labor unions, including the AFT and you know, our friend Randy. 76 Democratic aligned 501C4S. Of course, these are supposed to be non political groups including the aclu, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Working Families Organization, Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood, Indivisible Project. All of these groups 47.501C3. These are 501C3 groups. These supposed to be educational groups in this country. They have A, A, A501C3 group doesn't pay taxes, right?

[John Ashbrook]

Correct.

[Michael Duncan]

This is a nonprofit organization.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

The Unitarian Universalist Association. What the hell is that? Accountable U.S. american Humanist Association.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean it says with 286.7 million to the cause, they gave a quarter billion dollars for this quarter bill.

[Comfortably Smug]

A quarter bill, A lot of money to this.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

When we saw, I remember during the LA riots, like the dude drove up with a truck of like riot masks and stuff. People like whoa, These are like 500 a pop or something. How do they afford? That's how they afford that kind of nonsense.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. There's this vast dark money network on the left that funds all of this sort of stuff. There are no coincidences in this. More from the article. Along with the 198 groups behind no Kings with revenues of $2.1 billion, there are another 267 groups that have been organizing protests against Trump with revenues of $1.3 billion.

[Comfortably Smug]

And you saw over the weekend clips of people who were in their cars saying, yeah, I was paid $200 to go to one of these rallies. Another guy, I was paid to go to these rallies.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and not just, not just that. I also saw people on Twitter talking about all of the unsolicited text messages they were getting from organizers of these protests.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Who were, you know, texting out these videos of being like, why you have to come to this no Kings protest.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I mean, this is a well funded and well orchestrated operation. It's anything but grassroots.

[Comfortably Smug]

Exactly. It's anything but spontaneous.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. And it isn't just no Kings. Right. More here from the article. Remember that the Tesla when they were targeting all the Tesla dealerships.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

The Tesla takedown protest included an estimated 32 local and state affiliates of the Democratic National Committee from Florida to California, who put Tesla CEO Elon Musk in their crosshairs. Maybe there's a connection between all these things, this violence that we're seeing across this country and all of these groups with billions of dollars in their coffers that are organizing it.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's like DNC affiliated groups. This is straight from the dnc. Like, this is. You're seeing these riots, you're seeing this chaos. You saw all those destruction of people's Teslas. You saw, you know, people's businesses being burned to the ground, being funded straight up by the dnc. This is insane. And I want to bring up this one point when it comes to Randy Weingarten, I was remiss in not bringing this up earlier. I remember this was during COVID when Randy kept demanding schools be kept shut down. And she gives this press conference and she's like, not only do schools need to remain shut down, we need billions of dollars more from the government.

[Michael Duncan]

They've never been safe.

[John Ashbrook]

And I replied to her tweet and I was like, in this video, you are standing in front of a Gulfstream G5. Like, how are you affording a G5 out here? Talking about, like, teachers are not getting the money they need. That's the day she blocked me. Like, you cannot bring up to them they're living in the billionaire's lap of luxury and they don't care about the cause, they care about the money.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's exactly right. Like, why are teachers not getting what they need? It's because of her. I mean, think about it. From the day that she walked in the door as the head of the teachers union, which is who knows how many years ago to today, the complaint from teachers is still the same. Were not paid enough. So if a union is supposed to do anything, it's supposed to help the members get a better shake. And she hasn't done shit.

[Michael Duncan]

She's incapable of that. She's entirely incapable of that. And I think this means that's why things like this mean even more to a person like her. Right? It's this intersectionality of the left. It's like if I can't actually deliver for teachers, I'm going to go and I'm going to hop in front of a camera and talk about all of these things. And that somehow is going to mean I'm doing my job.

[Comfortably Smug]

I guess the only point I'm making is that that's the reason why she's not delivering for teachers. She's thinking about intersectionality and jumping in some stupid speech full of bullshit. She's not thinking about how can I make sure that teachers get paid more. How can I make sure that they get the resources they need to walk into a classroom.

[Michael Duncan]

Isn't it sort of funny though that this whole no Kings protest over the weekend was done in response to this 250th anniversary of the US army and this parade that Donald Trump is going to have in Washington D.C. which they, they would make you believe is like the Reichstag fire of America. Like this is dictatorship coming to America. That there's going to be a parade in Washington D.C. and if you actually went there and you watched the thing, it was literally just a celebration of the army over its history lesson.

[John Ashbrook]

They had like every era of the army. It was like uniforms, they're like, and this is the uniform they wore in like the 1800s. This is the uniform they wore in World War I.

[Michael Duncan]

You couldn't find a lesson political event in Washington D.C. it's, it's literally like you said, smug.

[John Ashbrook]

It's what the History Channel used to be.

[Michael Duncan]

It was like, it was like Ken Burns, U.S. army.

[John Ashbrook]

It was so good.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, right, exactly. And they're freaking out about it. They got their hair on fire about it. And the reason why is because that's who their base is. These people are lunatics and they have to motivate them by all this outrage. We got to play this other clip because it gets, it gets much funnier. Much funnier than Randy.

[Comfortably Smug]

I can't wait.

[Michael Duncan]

This is a no Kings protest where they decided all dress up like cats. Let's play clip number two.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh my bro, is this for real?

[Comfortably Smug]

You've got, you've got people dressed up as cats walking down a sidewalk for our audio on only listeners. And there was a, there was a sign on a cart that said cats eat mice with ice capitalized. So they're trying to say, I guess that these octogen, who knows how old these middle aged people are in cat costumes. That they're going to eat ice.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know. They still think they're fighting Vietnam.

[Comfortably Smug]

These are theater kids.

[Michael Duncan]

Theater kids.

[Comfortably Smug]

And it's bad theater.

[Michael Duncan]

It is.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's terrible theater. They should be mocked. And how in the world do they find the time to make a cat costume, to then walk down a sidewalk, to then walk after a card of somebody with a stupid sign to attack these cops who are doing their job, trying to get the criminals off the streets? It's outrageous.

[Michael Duncan]

It is outrageous.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then at the same time, they're mocking our. Our troops. You know, these guys are have. Are never celebrated. Never celebrated. They just get lip service. People are like, oh, yeah, thank the vets. Thank the vets. The one time in decades that they're allowed to march down with their heads held high and show people the tanks that the only, you know, in the world, the only people who see those tanks never live to talk about it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And there's a reason for that. But, like, can't we celebrate what these guys are doing?

[John Ashbrook]

And there was a parade in 1991, after the Gulf War was won, and there was a parade Lincoln had. And throughout history, like, Jefferson had a parade. Like, there's a huge, rich history of parades for Americans to celebrate our military and the people who serve in it. And this was all the folks who saw it, saw it. It was such a treat. You learned so much. And you saw the smiles on the faces, not just of, you know, the army folks who were serving in the parade, but, like, when I would see these, they'd cut away and they'd show, like, kids who are having the time of their life waving flags, you know.

[Comfortably Smug]

Big smiles on their faces.

[John Ashbrook]

It's almost like, this is great for.

[Michael Duncan]

America, but unfortunately, smuggler, it wasn't about that. For the left, we have more of the lowlights from the no King protests over the weekend right after this.

[Ray Starling]

President Trump knows that farmers are the engine of our economy.

[Michael Duncan]

He's always had their back, and now Congress can, too. Tax provisions like duty drawback ensure American farmers win in a competitive global marketplace.

[Ray Starling]

And duty drawback drives investment in American farming communities, helping farmers and their families. Special interests want to get rid of duty drawback.

[John Ashbrook]

Congress must stop them.

[Ray Starling]

Because when American farmers win, America wins.

[Michael Duncan]

Congress protect the duty drawback provision for American farmers. Okay, so we've got more lowlights here from this no Kings protest over the weekend. The shenanigans were out of control. These people have lost their minds. Can we put up this clip number three, please? Spaghetti. Oh, they.

[Comfortably Smug]

What Is this guy. You have a lunatic in Bermuda shorts and a backpack banging.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a Donald Trump voodoo doll.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's banging it against a board.

[John Ashbrook]

It says on. On at this booth, Thera Trumpy, where you pay, what was it, 50 cents to attack a little Barbie doll of Donald Trump. It's like.

[Michael Duncan]

We have a mental health.

[John Ashbrook]

We have a mental health crisis in this country.

[Michael Duncan]

Rfk, please save us.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, reopen the asylum. Like, dude, you're like 70 something showing up to this protest to beat up on a doll of Donald Trump. And that somehow is making you feel better, like you're the real hero of the day. You gotta go home, dude. Go home to your family. You need to get your life together again.

[Comfortably Smug]

The contrast between celebrating our troops in a parade and then no kings, which was a parade of cats, and then some boomer banging a doll that looked like Donald Trump against a board.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, those are two different visions.

[Michael Duncan]

For the whole thing. The whole thing kind of feels like Don Quixote. You like tilting at windmills.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Like they have this idea, this nightmare of America they think is real, that they're fighting against that makes them feel happy. That isn't real. If you watched that army parade and all the people in the tanks waving at the crowds and the young kids who were happy and Donald Trump and all this sort of. And the bands that were playing and everybody there was having a good time, and this is what they think is dictatorship in America. No kings, no kings. Donald Trump is trying to be a king. And they're walking around, like you said, smug, Beating a Barbie doll.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, it's, it's really, it's. It's really sad because I think you're right. There is this horrific problem, this siloing of the left of where they further radicalize and separate. Because, like, listen, if grandpa's like, that dude's a, you know, a grandfather age. Grandpas are home having fun with their kids or they're at a parade. What are you doing, dude? What are you doing? Like, this is supposed to be the time of your life that you're like, I have grandkids. This is the best time ever. I'm going to hang out with them. I might take them to a parade. And this is what you're doing, dude. Like, this is not healthy.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I'm glad you said that. Smug. Because it's easy to laugh at these people and obviously pretty fun to laugh at these people, but it's also really pretty. Pretty sad. Yeah, it's sad what the left has done. To their own base. It's sad what MSNBC has done to their own base. And I think that is basically epitomized here by clip number four, spaghetti. Let's play that.

[John Ashbrook]

Listen to what some of these protesters told us.

[Comfortably Smug]

I just.

[Michael Duncan]

I just. I'm just so scared.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm 74 years old.

[Michael Duncan]

I worry about everything. And I just.

[John Ashbrook]

I just. I just am so scared and upset. And I don't.

[Michael Duncan]

And I don't understand why people did.

[John Ashbrook]

Voted for this person.

[Comfortably Smug]

Man, oh, man.

[John Ashbrook]

She's 74, and they wound her up to the point that she's just crying and paranoid and just like, where's her family? Where's.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what I want to know. Where's her family?

[John Ashbrook]

And that's. The other thing is, like, in this. I've done a lot of research on this whole, like, radicalization process, and that's like, the first thing they try to do. Like, we talk about how what the left has done is they spent the past 10 years looking for heretics, hunting them down, and the right has spent the past 10 years looking for converts. And that's the difference. We've grown. Our party. You saw, it was, you know, Tulsi, you saw rfk, you saw the expansion, you saw Maha with Maga, and we have grown and is essentially encompassed. The normal people in this country are all now Trump supporters. Right? That share has grown. Meanwhile, the left has just made their base more insular and insular and insular, and kept them in a silo of information where they're being told that, like, in. It's the Holocaust, you're being hunted down and Trump is a king and you're all gonna die and you should be scared. And you know what? There's climate change happening outside your door, and you're gonna die tomorrow, and you're having any kids, you're just dooming them to die. And it's like, this is a horrible thing. This is a tragic occurrence. Like, the left, it truly has become just like a group of completely insane people.

[Comfortably Smug]

It is tragic. And if the leaders of the no Kings movement are the Don Quixote's, it's ladies like that who are the Sancho Panzas of the movement.

[Michael Duncan]

Good pull.

[Comfortably Smug]

And these are people who are so sadly working alongside Don Quixote, just hoping that those windmills are going to be right there, they're going to take out those dragons, and they're very sad when it turns out to just be a windmill. And I feel like there is an entire country full of people like that who have been deluded into following this stupid ideology. At the same time everybody else is like, well, let's celebrate these troops, you know what I mean? Like, you got to think like a part of them is conflicted because they did grow up in America. They did grow up thinking that like, man, America is the greatest thing. And now all of a sudden they're stuck under this ideology. It is so sad.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. But you know what I worry about, Ashbrook, is that these people, especially that woman, that 74 year old woman who's like crying on television about how Donald Trump's going to be a dictator or whatever, is that they've had their minds so polluted for so long that they get brought along on all this intersectionality bullshit of the left to the point where like it's not about even that Donald Trump's a dictator, which of course he's not. It's all this other stuff that's in this constellation of left wing bullshit that they make a woman like that also believe. Let's go to clip number five here where we've got a Hamas flag at the no Kings rally.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is the high end. This guy is standing on top of a pillar waving a Hamas flag and everybody's cheering, cheering.

[Michael Duncan]

They're cheering it on. They're cheering it on. Think about that. Think about that. It's like no kings in America, only terror.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

We're going to pledge allegiance to a terrorist group that's a proxy of the Ayatollah in Iran. How make that make sense for me.

[John Ashbrook]

In New York City of all places? Man, like that is shameful.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's shameful. Yeah. And I find it ironic that he's standing next to a one way sign and you know exactly the direction that.

[Michael Duncan]

Is pointing really paints a picture for you. Does it, John?

[Comfortably Smug]

It really does.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, so our question of the day for you and we read all of the comments here on the YouTube page and then we, you know, we read them often here on the Ruthless variety program. But our question today coming out of this segment, the no Kings movement, what it means for the future of the Democratic Party. Does it revitalize the left? Is this a flash in the pan or given their deep pockets, we went through that here on the show. Is this the future for the left? How does that impact the midterms and all of those things? I'm curious what you think as a listener. We want to read all of your comments. We'll report back later in the show. On Thursday. When we come back, we're going to read Your comments from last episode, we asked you, how long would you last as speaker? I think everybody on this show knows I would last maybe a minute before I had to throw in the towel. But we have some fantastic comments in here. I can't wait to wait to read them right after this. American strength starts with American Energy. As a leading pipeline and energy infrastructure company, Williams is leading the way, delivering low cost natural gas to power American energy dominance. Here's the truth. AI tech, innovation, manufacturing, and America as a global leader require a lot of energy. And there is no better way to meet growing energy demand than reliable, abundant natural gas. For over 100 years, Williams has led the charge to safely deliver that energy. But now outdated permitting laws slow American innovation and economic development, blocking access to the abundant resources we have and need to stay ahead. Expedited permitting is critical to meet growing energy demand, drive economic growth, lower prices, and fully unlock America's energy potential. Williams is ready to get back to building the pipeline infrastructure that will keep our economy growing strong and secure.

[Comfortably Smug]

Learn [e-mail] okay, folks, time to sound the alarm. Trump's big, beautiful tax cut is coming down to the wire in Congress. And my friends at Americans for Prosperity want your help to get it across the finish line. If the bill doesn't pass, the average American family is looking at a $1,500 tax hike. Americans for Prosperity says not gonna happen. Right now. Some members of Congress are getting very shaky with every special interest in D.C. pounding on their doors. But AFP thinks it's time for hardworking Americans to do some pounding of their own. So AFP and its grassroots army is already out there pushing back on crazy ideas like raising tax rates and supporting the congressmen who want to cut taxes. AFP is the only organization I know that can bring this kind of grassroots pressure to bear. If you want to join the fight to Protect Prosperity, visit ProtectProsperity.com to help Trump get his big, beautiful bill. That's ProtectProsperity.com.

[Michael Duncan]

And we're back. All right, so we have our comments from last episode. How long would you last as speaker of the House? A small majority. A lot of infighting, different caucuses, different constituencies to placate difficult job. And we got some great comments. We always start with the voice.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay. First one comes from Clarence Aubert. And Clarence writes, how long would I last? Depends on your definition. Will I resign or will I be voted out? If I make it past my acceptance speech, which I doubt, I would have probably pissed off so many people in the caucus and their Leaders, they would have to vote to vacate and have me removed within two weeks. But to be clear, I would not resign. At 65 years old, my Give a Shit meter has been pegged when I hear I want this or I want that instead of what America wants and needs. Take care, guys, and always have a banger of a day. Clarence, what a great comment.

[Michael Duncan]

I love that comment. It also feels like Smug's burner a little bit.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, like, the thing about, like, the Give a shit meter, it's like, dead on. Like dead on. That's. That's the thing. It's like, you know, I know the job requires a lot of teamwork, but it's like, I have a very difficult job. I'm going to be like, this is what I want. This is what the country wants. That's what we got to do. And that's it.

[Comfortably Smug]

No compromise.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, Smug, what do we have for comment?

[John Ashbrook]

To comment to the homestead, Journey writes, question of the day. If I could hire Smug as my muscle, I could last as speaker forever. I wouldn't take too many drowned dogs for people to fall right in line. That's right. That's the thing is, you know, my kind of, like, leadership style is you have to make an example. It's kind of like prison. You walk in the first day, you've got to, like, kick somebody's ass.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. Shank or be shanked.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right. So, like, you know, it's the same thing like Combs said, Journey Rice is you gotta walk in there, there's gotta be human sacrifice, Scare everybody straight, set the tone for things to come. I think that's a great apply.

[Michael Duncan]

I love.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the way to do it.

[Michael Duncan]

I love that. Comment number 3 here is. And there's a lot of asterixes here, but I believe the comment is saying the washing chit post.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, that's it.

[Michael Duncan]

And they write, I would last a Scaramucci of hours as the speaker of the House standing, which I just love what I love about our audience, everybody's got a complaint about things not being the way. Exactly. That they would do it, but they also have the self recognition that it's a hard job.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And I think Speaker Johnson is doing the best that he can.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, you look at that interview he did with us last week, he's.

[Comfortably Smug]

Got a hard job, very hard job. And the guy's a real conservative, like a legit conservative. When you put a conservative in that job or you put anybody in that job, they have to come to terms with the fact that you have members who represent very, very different constituencies. And you heard him say that we don't have a majority without California and without New York. And he understands that implicitly. And without that understanding, you can't operate a majority year after year after year. And so I think that he comes from the right place as a conservative, but he has a very realistic view of what's achievable. And it sounds a lot like he's calling these senators and making sure that they are aware of the difficulties in the House as they consider.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I. You know, what? I would consider it a little bit is like, it's a bedside manner. It's like being a good doctor or a therapist, if you will. It's like people come to you with their problems and everything, and you got to, like, sort of smooth all that over.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Which is a hard thing to do because, you know, like, any sort of constituency, whether it's the New York stuff on the salt stuff stuff. Right. Or if it's the House Freedom Caucus, like, any of these constituencies could kind of hold the whole process hostage if things go sideways. So you got to be able to, like, find a way to meet everybody where they are and deliver something for the entire conference. It's basically right now the hardest job in Washington.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, it really is. And that's a good imagery, you know, the bedside manner. And a good doctor. You know, sometimes a good doctor needs to understand when a patient walks in only wanting to cause problems.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that happens day after day in that job as speaker. And, you know that he understands that in a way that, you know, few other people who've had the job have understood it.

[Michael Duncan]

So smug. I'm curious. All right. Wave a magic wand, and you're speaker of the House tomorrow. Who are your deputies? Who's your whip? Like, who are you counting on, man?

[John Ashbrook]

So, I mean, I want to get MTG in the mix.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

I really like mtg. The gentleman from North Carolina that we just had on the show, he's 100% on the team.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, that guy was put in a position where him and his team of 24 had to put down a town of 200,000, root out all the terrorists, and he got the job done. I would think, like, you know, that's my whip.

[Michael Duncan]

That guy can do the job.

[John Ashbrook]

That's my whip.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. Okay. That's a good whip operation. I like that. Okay.

[Comfortably Smug]

So listen, I think I'd take you, both of you guys, as my whips.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like under no circumstances, under no circumstances would I go into battle with anybody else. And you know that in Congress you need your boys around you if you're going to succeed. So I don't think that I would ever. Should I be selected speaker of the House, I don't think I would ever say yes to the job if I didn't also get my demand that I have you two whipping things.

[John Ashbrook]

All right. Ashbrook for Speaker.

[Michael Duncan]

Ashbrook for Speaker. I love it. And whereas fixers, I love that. Up next, Israel and Iran are at war. Is there a little bit of divide on the right on this issue? I think it's interesting to discuss and also dispel. I think there's a lot of BS that's out there on all of that. And we're gonna discuss all of that right after this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Hardworking Americans know when it's time to roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Now is the time to unleash our nation's energy, to create jobs, secure our future, and make life better, more affordable, and full of opportunity for all Americans. That's the power of America's oil and natural gas. Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[Michael Duncan]

Welcome back. Okay, so now we have to talk a little bit here about the Israel, Iran conflict. There's been missiles obviously going across there into Tehran and back into Israel. Horrible thing to see happen in the world. Obviously Iran, you know, had a lot of this coming to him. They've been trying to enrich uranium and build out these nuclear sites. And Israel basically had enough of it. And I know Donald Trump's been negotiating here behind the scenes to make sure that we figure out a way that Israel's protected. But also Iran doesn't have a pathway to a nuclear weapon. And Donald Trump doesn't want this to be a full scale war. But there's a lot of, there's a lot of people on the right who are a little upset about this entire situation. And here from the New York Post, Trump refutes Tucker Carlson's criticism. He abandoned America first by supporting Israel. Quote, I decide. President Trump rejected right wing pundit Tucker Carlson's criticism that he has abandoned American first principles with his support of Israel amid its campaign against Iran. Okay, here. Just a level set. Just a level set. I don't think Tucker Carlson, in saying that Donald Trump has abandoned America first is correct. I don't think that. I think there is similar to this no kings thing we were talking about at the front where there's Sort of this Don Quixote problem where people are, like, creating dragons out of windmills. There is an idea on the right that this is the conversation about invading Iraq in 2002. I don't think that actually exists in Republican politics right now.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I've not heard anybody say, send American troops into Iran tomorrow. I haven't heard it. I mean, and, you know, you understand why Israel is shooting back at the Iranians because they have funded Hamas, they funded Hezbollah, the Yemeni missiles aren't coming from. From nowhere. The Houthi missiles aren't coming from nowhere. So they're settling that score. And, you know, there's a difference between supporting an ally, a great ally of ours, and sending boots on the ground. And some people are sort of acting like the troops are gearing up to be sent over there. And that's not the case.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I mean, I would say, to me, this situation is the. The, like, perfect embodiment and example. And what I would love to see from kind of an America first type of foreign policy where, okay, Iran is enriching uranium, which is a threat to the world, and Israel's like, we're not going to have that. And they launch this attack. There's these, like, precision strikes to the point where, like, they can take out a single room in an apartment building, because that's where the general lives. So, like, cool. And there's zero American troops involved in this. There's zero American boots on the ground involved in all this. To me currently, it seems like America is, in my. In my view, the ideal foreign policy state. I want America to be like, the arms dealer for all our allies. We got a lot of missiles that can intercept shit. We got a lot of, you know, Patriot missile batteries. We've got all this gear that is ready to sell to allies who need it. And when our allies have purchased that from us, it's American jobs. It's America who gets money from that. And then our allies become like porcupines, where it's like, okay, well, everyone in the world knows if you're an ally of America, you've bought weapons from America, and none of the stuff that we fire at you is going to work. So there's no point in attacking an ally of America. That seems like a great approach to foreign policy when you do it like this. Zero American troops, zero boots on the ground. And America benefits economically. Our allies benefit from being part of a partnership with America because they are able to put up a great defense. And it becomes futile to attack America or our allies. I want to keep it like that. It seems like a great situation that we've got going, and it seems like Trump deserves a lot of credit for getting us in a place like this. You saw Secretary Rubio put out the statement where he was like, the US Is not involved in these attacks, but, you know, we will happily provide munitions. We'll sell them to Israel to be able to keep up their defense. Wonderful, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I love it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good point.

[Michael Duncan]

And I don't think anybody thinks that this neocon fantasy of putting boots on the ground and doing regime change is how we win a war in the Middle east. We have 20 years that proved that to be a false thing. That doesn't work. And Donald Trump here in this article in the New York Post, says, sort of responding to this idea that he's abandoned America first, which I think is ludicrous. Well, considering that I'm the one that developed America first, and considering that the term wasn't used until I came along, I think I'm the one that decides that for those people who say they want peace, you can't have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don't want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon, that's not peace. It's as simple as that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. I'll tell you, I know what you guys are talking about is very serious. One of my favorite tweets that came through over the weekend was from a good friend of the program. Stephen Miller writes under Red Steez on Twitter.

[Michael Duncan]

The other Stephen Miller.

[Comfortably Smug]

The other Stephen Miller. Both of them. But he is very funny. And he was, quote, tweeting a guy who said, at this point, any Iranian official still alive must be feeling a little hurt that Israel didn't think they were important enough. Very funny tweet.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

And Red Steve's quote tweets it and says, james, Ben Rhodes is an American citizen, which is very funny. You know Ben Rhodes at the top, the Democrat consultant. Well, Styles himself. And Ben, national security expert.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Ben Rhodes was a national security adviser to Barack Obama during the period in which he was signing this nuclear deal.

[John Ashbrook]

With Iran and shipping pallets of cash to Iran.

[Michael Duncan]

Shipping pallets of cash over to those people.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

While also undermining Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle east, by propping up, through State Department funds, a super PAC operation to unseat and Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015. As I've talked about on the show, I worked on that campaign, and I sat there in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and across the way would be people like Jeremy Byrd, who worked for Barack Obama, who are sitting in a room with me and undermining our greatest ally in the Middle east by trying to force him out of office. Using your taxpayer money.

[Comfortably Smug]

Crazy.

[John Ashbrook]

So wild.

[Michael Duncan]

Using your taxpayer money through the State Department.

[Comfortably Smug]

Absolutely.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, if you want to know why what Elon Musk and Doge was doing through USAID and all of these things is so important. It's stuff like that. Yep, it's stuff like that. Where the deep state and the deep state is real. The deep state is real. The deep state would use your taxpayer money to do things around the world that you didn't vote for. Never had a voice in it. They would do a voter registration program in Israel that then would get laundered to a super PAC run by Barack Obama's allies to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu. Think about that.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's crazy.

[Michael Duncan]

That is in the United States of America. That isn't Russia interfering in America's election. That's Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes, Tommy Vitor and all these fuckheads fucking up our democracy.

[Comfortably Smug]

You work so hard for what you earn and every April 15th you send your money off to the government and then they take it.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what they do.

[Comfortably Smug]

Something like that.

[Michael Duncan]

It's unbelievable stuff. It's unbelievable stuff. You have to actually know as a conservative what the stakes are here, here. Right. Don't get sidetracked with all this. We're not going to put boots on the ground in Iran. We're just not going to do that. We're going to let Israel finish the job. They're our ally. We're going to supply them weapons. That's the end of it. It's as simple as that.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, that's a good point, man.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, you ready for some variety?

[John Ashbrook]

Always.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, we have great variety here on this show. We need variety. We had a lot of tough to go through. We gotta watch Randy Wei garden bounce around and pretend to be important. I think this is going to be near and dear to your heart. Smug.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Important for you. Somebody who cares about your health and fitness.

[John Ashbrook]

Always.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. This is from the Daily Mail. Celsius. This is the energy drink Celsius breaks silence over link between its drinks and cocaine. Cocaine performance enhancing drug.

[Comfortably Smug]

So there's cocaine in Celsius, is that what you're saying?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, let me tell you a little bit more here. Celsius has finally addressed claims that its popular energy drinks can cause false positives for cocaine and drug tests.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

This is a fallout of a Tweet from a sports reporter from the Detroit Tigers beat who had tweeted that MLB teams were advising players to avoid the drink. You might get a false positive on a drug test if you drank a Celsius, apparently.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Celsius beverages contain about 18, 10 milligrams of taurine, far exceeding the typical daily intake of 40 to 400 milligrams.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay. And that's something that's in. I. I've seen that, like, in Red.

[Michael Duncan]

Bull and other things. Right?

[Comfortably Smug]

Other labels.

[Michael Duncan]

Right? Yeah. So apparently it can get you a false positive on a drug test for the mlb, but he also deleted the tweet, so it's a little unclear whether that's actually the case. But smug.

[John Ashbrook]

So that's the thing is.

[Michael Duncan]

Do you really care?

[John Ashbrook]

So here's the thing, is it said in the article that it's been determined that that's actually false, that this idiot journo just made up a lie. Who'd have guessed? Who would have guessed?

[Michael Duncan]

So dishonest.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wait, wait. What's false?

[John Ashbrook]

That the claim that it can show up as a false positive for cocaine.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's actually not true. Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Ye.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And so that's why the journo deleted their tweet. And it's a typical journo. So, like, they already got their attention that they wanted. You know, they got their retweets and everything. They got the story out there, putting their name out there, and so all they have to do is hit delete. It's not like they have to issue a correction or, like, get fired or be held accountable. That's the journo way. But I love Celsius. I mean, the thing is, do you.

[Michael Duncan]

Feel like you're on cocaine when you have one?

[John Ashbrook]

So I wouldn't know the comparison. I feel great. Maybe if that's what cocaine feels like. Well, you know what? Maybe it's not such a bad thing. So I'm a fan of Celsius. It's all natural. Like, all the ingredients they put in there. All natural. That's the thing is. Is why it got so popular as opposed to, like, you know, Red Bull and. And the other, like, monster energy and stuff out there. Yeah, it's because Celsius is. Is only all natural ingredients.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, do you know what it does for me? All the flavors. I like that.

[Comfortably Smug]

You like flavor.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I like Red Bull.

[Comfortably Smug]

You like some flavors.

[John Ashbrook]

You like Red Bull?

[Michael Duncan]

I like Red Bull. It's fine.

[John Ashbrook]

It's okay. It tastes like. Like battery acid. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like no one's like, God, I love the taste of this Red Bull.

[Michael Duncan]

You're just like the sugar free Red Bull.

[John Ashbrook]

Same. I'm like, I drink sugar free if that's the only choice. But it's like, I mean, I'd rather have the vodka straight if it got me up. Like a Red Bull and vodka.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what I mean?

[John Ashbrook]

But like, no one's like, yo, I love that Red Bull sugar free taste. As opposed to Celsius, which has like, you know, because they add fruit juice or whatever to it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, they got a lot of good stuff. Yeah, I love it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Full variety.

[Michael Duncan]

The full variety, which we appreciate here on the Ruthless Variety Program. We get one more story. This is so for variety.

[John Ashbrook]

This has been cooking for weeks.

[Michael Duncan]

So it's been cooking. I wanted to cover it, but we. We didn't find the right time. A lot of news going on, a lot of stuff going on. We didn't find the room for it. I think this story was created in a lab for the Ruthless Variety Program. It's like somebody SEO keyword stuffed a story to get our attention. This story has crypto, it has kidnapping, it has Italians, and it's got a little bit of sexiness to it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, you have my attention.

[Michael Duncan]

You have my attention. Okay, so basically what had happened is this gentleman. I want to make sure I get this name right. And I expect an active board here.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, we'll see. We'll see if you earn it.

[Michael Duncan]

There's a victim here. Michael Valentino Teofrasto Karturin.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay. God, we know what this is about.

[John Ashbrook]

Italian national anthem right there.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wait, what was that name again?

[Michael Duncan]

His name was Michael Teofrasto Carterano. He's got four names. This guy's got four names.

[John Ashbrook]

Vito Carbone.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable. This is from the New York Post. I'm just gonna read the headline real quick, but I wanted to name check the victim real quick. So we get a little active board use. Crypto Bros and twisted NYC kidnap torture case. Hosted wild sex parties with help of alleged madam, an alleged victim. I mean, where to start here? The Crypto Bros. At the center of the twisted kidnapping case allegedly hosted wild sex parties with the help of a parent madam, at a posh New York City townhouse. Mama me.

[John Ashbrook]

There we go.

[Michael Duncan]

Where they are accused of torturing an Italian bitcoin millionaire.

[John Ashbrook]

So Italian bitcoin millionaire.

[Michael Duncan]

Italian bitcoin millionaire. That is Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carteron. Apparently the two gentlemen who. Who took this guy hostage kidnapped him. William Duplessis and John Waltz. They were at this ritzy Prince street pad where they held him hostage. Right. Apparently, this guy carturin was worth $30 million. A wealthy trader of bitcoin. They had, I guess, taken his bitcoin at some point. There was this elaborate scheme with his family, and they. They convinced him to come to New York to recover this stolen bitcoin. And then. Are you held him hostage? Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

So, like, when I heard this story first, like, three weeks ago, none of these details were there. It was basically like a guy who had a lot of bitcoin was held hostage, and, like, two people were, like, beating him up, being like, give us the details to the crypto.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes. That was the subsequent kidnapping. Apparently, they'd already stolen some bitcoin from him, and they used that to entice him to come to New York for them, then to kidnap him.

[John Ashbrook]

This is like Italian brain right there.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, no.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, they think every criminal is a businessman they can work with. Right. Because that's how they do it. They're like, oh, you know, well, these guys already robbed me. Maybe I should go meet them. Well, so Italian brain in action.

[Michael Duncan]

From the New York Post. Carturin, 28, was allegedly lured to the Big Apple with the promise he'd be able to recoup bitcoin. The sick pair. These are these two gentlemen who kidnapped him had allegedly coerced from him by threatening to kill his family. Oh, can you believe that? Unbelievable. So they kidnap him and they put him in this ritzy pad there on Prince Street. That's where the shenanigans begin. They don't end with the trying and stealing of the threatening of the family. They were going to some, you know, posh club in New York. I believe it's called the Box Smug. And they were procuring some women who are of the night, if you will.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, that's a sketchy place to go. I'm gonna be real, like, give us.

[Michael Duncan]

The inside details, you know, New York.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. So, like, I mean, that's. So it's not like a place, I mean, that you go to procure women. It's just essentially, you know, the reputation of the box is you show up, like, after you've already been out at the bars, after you've already been out. This is like, you know, it's not like you show up at the box to meet some friends at 10pm it's like you're there at 4am because you're not done partying. Right. Like, you know, so that's like the Clientele, you're there to get into more trouble. And so now you've got this Italian and these dudes there. And what happens now?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, so what happens is they bring back some women from the box to this place where they've kidnapped this gentleman. And there's shenanigans involved.

[John Ashbrook]

This Italian is lying about all this shit.

[Michael Duncan]

There are sexual relations involved. Yep, he's lying even with the kidnappee himself. Can we put up graphic number? Was that one there? Spaghettz? Yeah. So what we see here is the guy who's apparently the veteran Italian on the leash. Yes. Of this crypto scam. Who's on a leash surrounded by a bunch of women, scantily clad. I just gotta say, if I'm ever kidnapped, I'd love to be kidnapped that way.

[John Ashbrook]

So this Italian guy is lying about all this shit. His family was never threatened. Like, this is all made up by the Italian. So he's like. His story ostensibly is like, they took some of my crypto and they forced me to meet him in New York. And then they took me to this club and they forced me to show me girls.

[Michael Duncan]

Like.

[John Ashbrook]

And he's like, I had to do it because, like, my family was in danger. This is such an Italian thing, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, well, you say that, but let me quote more here from the New York Post article. He was severely beaten, shocked with electrical wires, forced to smoke from a crack pipe, and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high. Authorities.

[John Ashbrook]

This is literally the average Italian day. This is like what they go through on a daily basis. This is like Joey Spaghetti's Thursday. Or Joey Carter. Carter, whatever, you know, Joey Carbone over here getting hung from a fucking balcony. This is just another date.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I guess. I guess, kind of. But what he did was he eventually convinced his kidnappers that he would reveal the password to his bitcoin. They went upstairs and then he ran out of the townhouse and flagged down some police officers.

[John Ashbrook]

Ah.

[Michael Duncan]

And I'm glad he did, because we wouldn't know this whole story if he.

[John Ashbrook]

Hadn'T seen this guy.

[Comfortably Smug]

So he kept his bitcoin. They didn't even get it.

[Michael Duncan]

They didn't even get it. Wow. And you know, wait a minute, wait.

[John Ashbrook]

A minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

[Comfortably Smug]

I might be with mug. So. So, I mean, I did not read this before hearing it now for the first time. And so the money is still in. His account was never stolen.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And the intervening time, it was strippers and hookers and threats of violence. And he was Partying at this place. And I don't know.

[John Ashbrook]

Can I tell you the truth of what? I can tell you the truth of what happened.

[Michael Duncan]

Again, we don't know the actual truth.

[John Ashbrook]

I just want to say.

[Michael Duncan]

Parody. We're lying.

[John Ashbrook]

This is a parody. And I don't know what I'm talking about. But here's what happened in my. A theory that I'm putting forward is the bill came due and the Italian went. Full Italian. They're like, okay, so you know, who's gonna pay for like all these girls in this weekend of partying? And he was like, okay, guys, I'm gonna go grab my wallet. Everyone go upstairs for a second.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you think this was an elaborate.

[John Ashbrook]

And then he just ran outside and he was like, oh, I've been robbed, Officer. This guy did not want to pick up the tab. He was probably mouthing off like, you know, you get an Italian 10 bucks, they're gonna tell 100 people they got 10 bucks. I can't imagine what it's like for this guy, you know, like it's in Goodfellas, how it was impossible for them not to get. They'll buy a pink Cadillac. You know, you'll tell an Italian not to spend money and keep quiet, and they'll buy a fur coat. They're gonna think they're Don Corleone. That's what happened here is this guy made a little bit of money in bitcoin and he thought he was like, you know, John Gotti. He shows up to New York, he wants to party. He has these. These guys that he knows take him out to a club. They got girls, they get booze, they go, they rage out. And then the bill comes due and he's like, yeah. I'll be right back, guys. He's got a leash around his neck. He's gonna run out the door and tell the cops, oh, wow, I've been kidnapped.

[Michael Duncan]

I like the theory, Spug.

[John Ashbrook]

I really do.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, like, Italian bounces on the check. That's it. Not the first guy.

[John Ashbrook]

Or do we believe this is an elaborate multi state scheme to trick an attack?

[Michael Duncan]

What a wonderful story.

[Comfortably Smug]

What a story.

[Michael Duncan]

Custom made for the ruthless variety. All right, well, we got to get to this interview. Ray Starling from the North Carolina Chamber talking about an important issue that's coming up here in this whole reconciliation debate. Let's get right to it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Very happy today to have a guy all the way from North Carolina. From the Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina, Ray Starling. Thanks for joining the program.

[Ray Starling]

Thanks for having me. On. You guys do a great job and it's fun. Fun to sitting here and chatting with you.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, well, very, very happy to have you. And you're in Washington D.C. all the way from North Carolina for a very good reason, which we'll get to in a minute. But you aren't strictly a chamber guy. You grew up on a farm and farms in North Carolina are a huge deal.

[Ray Starling]

Yeah, I know. It's our state's number one industry, employs more people than any other industry in the state. I feel very passionate about it because I grew up around it. I went to NC State and studied agriculture as an undergraduate. I actually went to law school at UNC Chapel Hill. But that was because I wanted to be an advocate in the agriculture industry. And fortunately that's what I've ended up being able to do.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, you're here in Washington talking about the big beautiful bill and there's an awful lot to like about the big beautiful bill. But there's one provision that could really hurt farmers in North Carolina and some other tobacco growing states. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that.

[Ray Starling]

Yeah, happy to. And I think you make a good point, John, that the big beautiful bill, certainly the tax provisions in particular, we are grateful and we recognize these things are a big compromise and a big way to try to keep everybody at the table. But there was a provision in the House version of the bill that would without question hurt tobacco farmers, which are still a significant constituency in North Carolina. We raise about $500 million worth of tobacco in our state. That's half of what the entire country raises, about a billion. Of course, those dollars are then turned over in the economy. So it's a multi billion dollar industry still. But most of that tobacco now is headed somewhere outside the United States. And so there was a provision that's long been in the law. In fact, I'd like to point out this particular provision is a little younger than this. But the idea of something called the duty drawback actually started in 1789. George Washington signed the bill that made the way for this on July 4th in 1789. And the general premise is that if you import a product that is very similar or is now they call it in the same classification or substantially similar to a product that you export, when you export that product back out of the country, you get a tax credit or a tax rebate, if you will, for the duty that you paid on the product coming into the country. That helps us be more competitive in tobacco around the world. The United States is significant in that area, but we're not a world leader. China definitely grows more tobacco than us. India grows more tobacco than us. I think we're like number four around the world, but we have a great product. In fact, when I was growing up, everybody talked about east coast tobacco. Just has a special taste, a special blend. That's why it became a part of our heritage here in the United States. We were better at it than the British. Add it to the list. And long story short, this provision that allows us or this law that allows us to get that rebate makes us more competitive when we're pushing that product into foreign markets.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. And of course, you're also talking about incentivizing domestic manufacturing, domestic growing. President Trump has made great efforts to reinvigorate American manufacturing and American farms.

[Ray Starling]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

And what you're talking about is helping that goal.

[Ray Starling]

That's exactly right. And he's so good at talking about things that there really is. You know, a lot of times in politics, there's a yin and a yang. But who's against good jobs in the United States? That's kind of hard to push back against. In fact, not is it not just the farming jobs, it is the manufacturing jobs that are supported. And the NAM tells us in the surveys that they do that manufacturing jobs in the US are generally worth about $84,000 a year all in for the people that have them. So that's important. So add that to the list. And then I would just add, and these are sort of soft things. I think that the tobacco world is still very culturally significant where I'm from. And I'm really happy that Senator Tillis and Senator Budd get that. I mean, A, they recognize the economic contribution. B, they recognize that this is singling out only one industry that uses the duty drawback as opposed to all of them. So it's not like this is some agreed upon policy that the House came to a commitment to and we're pushing back on. But third, they get that even those of us that don't work in tobacco anymore. My family does not farm tobacco anymore. But it put us through school. Right. I mean, it built a lot of schools in the state. In fact, when you look around at the universities, a lot of them came from big tobacco money, if you will. And so there's a heritage there, there's a culture there, and I'd like to try to protect that in addition. And I think that's why people get exercised about this.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think that's so important to point out, because Tobacco in North Carolina is a lot like coal in West Virginia. There's a cultural significance to that product.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

And people are very proud of it.

[Ray Starling]

That's right. And it's a part of. If you're a tobacco farmer, you're not just a tobacco farmer. Just like you guys here, you spread your cost over several different things. Right. I mean, I'm thrilled that you gave me a hat, some merchandise. I know I can buy that online, but getting it free was much better. I'll make sure I give my friend Joe, whose birthday is today. He's going to get the second hat. So happy birthday, Joe. But you spread your cost over multiple crops. If you're a tobacco farmer, you farm tobacco, you farm sweet potatoes. You know, you've got laborers there, you've got workers there, you've got equipment, you've got, of course, the land. And so there is no such thing as only a tobacco farmer. And so I just point that out, that if tobacco goes away, farming today is a little bit like a Jenga puzzle. Particularly in a state that has a diversified ag history, like North Carolina, you, you know, we are not a corn and bean state. We do a lot of corn and a lot of soybeans, but we have a very diversified ag economy. And so when you pull that piece out, that could really be a problem economically for the farmers that are growing.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes, so. So it's your opinion that if this provision continues to. If it somehow becomes part of the law, that is really going to hurt tobacco?

[Ray Starling]

Oh, there's no question. We would see. The Tobacco Growers of Association have estimated this number working, working with an economist that's known around the world, frankly, for his expertise, we think we would lose about a fifth of the crop, 20% of the crop. And there, again, that sounds overcomeable that you could lose 20% and still be okay. I don't think that's the case because again, in farming economics, it's that last 20%, that last 10%. That's where you make your money. So there's an economy of scale there that we've got at the moment and frankly feel like we're starting to grow a little bit in terms of. Of exports. And again, that's the only opportunity for growth. There's not much growth in the domestic market. And so we like to say we've got friends on all sides of this issue, but we think it's important and it'll hurt farmers if it doesn't come out of the bill.

[Comfortably Smug]

So do you think that's Possible, as the Senate considers this.

[Ray Starling]

Certainly hope so. Again, great conversations with Senator Tillis and Senator Budd, our North Carolina senators, very grateful that they've leaned into this. Both of them have made public statements that they're working to get the language out of the bill. I think you never know. It's over. And you know this better than I do, in fact, from the seats that you formerly sat in. But I think the message has gotten through. Right. And you guys are helping us with that as well.

[Michael Duncan]

And.

[Ray Starling]

And at the end of the day, it can. It can sound very complicated. Right. Duty drawback and tariffs and, you know, substitute merchandise and all this kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, all people have to remember is if the House version of the bill, if this. If the provision that was in the House version of the bill stays in the Senate piece of legislation, we will grow less tobacco in North Carolina and those other states, and we will have fewer tobacco farmers.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ray, if people listening to this want to learn a little bit more about it, I know you got. You got a website.

[Ray Starling]

That's right. That's exactly right. We've set up an organization through the Chamber called Our Ag Future. Our Ag Future. And the idea there was to put together some of the tobacco alumni from around the state. I'd put myself in that category. We all grew up working in the fields. In fact, I work at the Chamber with a colleague that literally worked in tobacco on my family's farm growing up. She was kind enough to hire me back at the Chamber, even though she had had to work in the tobacco fields as a young person. And we all talk about how much fun we had. I think that's B.S. i didn't have a lot of fun working in the field. I was always happy when the day was over. But there are a lot of people that are connected to this industry in North Carolina. And so trying to get the word out to them is exactly what our Ag Future is all about. And we've gotten great support out in the community. People putting up, you know, election signs, which we know make a lot of difference, right? Like, scientifically, we know that election signs are where it's at. And they've got this little bumper sticker. One of the major tobacco companies in the state used to have a phrase, North Carolina has pride in tobacco. That phrase is probably 30 years old. So we went back and remade those bumper stickers and those signs, and we added in the word still. North Carolina still has pride in tobacco. We cannot keep them in stock. People love them and People love putting them out and about. So that goes back to that cultural heritage. Right. People want to see this industry continue to stick around.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, that's outstanding. Ray Starling, thank you so much for coming, and good luck with everything.

[Ray Starling]

You bet. We'll buy you some barbecue next time you're down in the state.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can't wait. You know, he is so smart. And it's a very timely interview because as we know, the Senate is moving forward on their version of this reconciliation bill. Obviously, first came over from the House. Senate has to process it and then be approved by the House before it goes to President Trump. We're talking about the one big, beautiful bill, and there's so many different components of that bill, from tax cuts to building the border wall and everything else. And what Ray was talking about seems like a very, very big deal to farmers in North Carolina. And so I think it just goes to show you that there are so many different provisions in this that affect so many different people, different types of people from different parts of the country. Very important bill to watch closely as it works its way through Congress.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Everybody, you know, knows all the big components of this bill, but, like, tax policy is extremely complicated. Right. And like, the issue, like duty drawback that he was talking about is one that's been around since the founding of this country. The whole reason why you have it is to encourage exports out of America to the rest of the world to get people to invest in the United States of America. It's an issue that's bigger than one specific thing. It impacts a ton of issues. So I'm glad we had them on. It's important to sometimes have a little bit of that where it's like, not the big ticket. Yeah, it's a vegetables thing where it's not the big ticket item everyone's talking about. It's not salt. It's not this, not the other thing, but it's important nevertheless. All right, so again, our question of the day. No king. Kings. No kings. Is this going to be a sustainable movement for the left? Is this a thing that they're going to build on? Is this going to be a thing that gives them momentum into the midterms? They got deep pockets, but do they actually have the legs to make it happen? I want to know what you think. Very important. Like, subscribe. It's important that you like and subscribe. We read all your comments. We see all your comments. We pick the best. We're going to read them on Thursday. And with that smug. I think we did it.

[John Ashbrook]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen. Thank you so much, Ray Starling. And thank you so much, dear listener. Just like Duncan said, like. And subscribe to the YouTube if you have. Not yet. It's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the webs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.

[Michael Duncan]

Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be.

[Ray Starling]

Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host.

[Michael Duncan]

You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working.

[Ray Starling]

Out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion.

[Michael Duncan]

And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention?

[Ray Starling]

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[Michael Duncan]

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[Ray Starling]

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[John Ashbrook]

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[Ray Starling]

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[Michael Duncan]

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